SPINSPEAK II

Protect yourself from spin docs, fanatics, business titans, lawyers, academics and other worthies who are willfully befogging language to muddle your brain.  Orwell knew what snake oil can do.  So did Plato.  So did Stalin.  So did Hitler.  Spin rots the mind.

From the Introduction: A History of Spin

Words are the coin of thought.  When we debase this currency and slither from gold-standard words to lead-standard words to papier-mâché words, we debase our ability for rational discussion; our ability to think, to make logical judgments, to solve problems.  Instead, we increasingly spend our time studying and arguing about fantasy models of the real world.   

From the Technical Glossary

adspeak = a long-established and peculiarly American form of language pollution in which a totally or partially fictional reality is described in a highly sincere-sounding vocabulary: fantasy is presented as fact.  See: fantasyspeak. 

anchorweep = maudlin, funereal tone and sighs widely practiced by airhead TV anchors to indicate deep compassion and suggest that whatever and whomever they don’t like is apparently failing.

bizschoolspeak = technical-sounding neutral words for organizational actions that often involve unpleasant results or desperate gambles.  e.g.,  reengineering for massive firings. See: corporatespeak.

gooeytalk =  nauseatingly sticky, hyper-sentimental words and phrases designed to inflate and coat with unwarranted sanctification normal and often mundane human functions and relationships. e.g., nurture for taking care of one''s children; care giver for bedpan emptier,  Also see closely related pathostalk. 

From the Dictionary: 

accountability = fuzzball for phony assurance that despite what clearly  is  happening the bad guys will get theirs in the end with the unstated definition of "end" being "long after I am out of office if ever."   See: justice, rule of law.

bad behavior = softballtalk for such peccadilloes as bilking shareholders, giving and accepting large political gratuities and being serviced by your mistress in the Oval House while talking on the phone to congressmen.  See: CD and everyone does it.

children = pathostalk word usually invoked with a catch in the throat and suddenly moist eyes. e.g., spending cuts that would deprive children of (fill in blank); often employed in the French language universal: the children implying all children in the universe thereby elevating compassion to the global level. 

data integrity problem = corporatespeak for recognition that the books have been well cooked. 

empower = libtalk for  the act of arbitrarily giving